It’s great to see that channel 9 is now offering late night news at 11.30pm. For many of us, that is a better time to catch up on the news than 10.30 is on channel 10. Last night, I flicked over to 9 to watch the news at 11.30, only to find I had missed the start of it and therefore the first of the main stories which are usually the most important.
This is an ongoing problem for both channel 7 and 9 where programs after 11pm start early, while programs after 7pm start late. If you want to see all of the news on 9 scheduled for 11.30pm, I suggest you tune over at around 11.20 to make sure you don’t miss any. If you plan to record it to watch later in the night, then be sure to set your recorder to take into account those extra minutes before.
Channel 7 has been doing this with 30 Rock for months, which has started as early as 11.20 while still showing on both printed guides and EPGs as 11.30. On the flip side of the equation, channel 9 on Monday night, the last episode of Underbelly did not start until 8.39 and Eleventh Hour that followed Underbelly did not start until 9.45 – it was shown on the schedule as 9.30. That’s 15 minutes late. On that particular night, it was mae worse by having 3 minute HomeMade “Sneak Peaks” both before and after Underbelly, not to mention countless pop-up ads as well as extra ads during the ad breaks.
Last night, whilst working late, I left on 7HD in the background. At 12.53am, I heard the start of Deal or No Deal. After checking the 7HD TV guide on yahoo, I saw that Deal is scheduled to start at 1am. And, the show after it on 7HD – A Country Practice (and being on HD, you can see the rather low quality of the 80′s video compared to now) started at 1.17am – 13 minutes ealier than the program guide and EPG suggests.
The networks have to realise that an EPG is as good as useless if their programs do not match the time on the EPG. Most viewers rely on EPG times to either remind them of when a show starts or to record it to watch later. At least channel 10 keep their EPG times up to date most of the time. What is the problem with ch 7 and 9 – why can’t they keep their EPGs up to date? Surely the one that does stands to benefit the most from viewer satisfaction.
Both ch 7 and 9 need to be called to account for this archaic practise of running programs late or early. It is nothing more than blatant disrespect for their viewers, and such a strategy would only work if viewers watched the same channel all night. They don’t. They all have remotes. They all change channels many times during the night, and they all get frustrated at shows starting late or starting early.
Having said all that, here is my guide of what time you can expect a show to really start based on its advertised or scheduled time on the 3 commercial networks.
Scheduled Time - channel 7 – channel 9 – channel 10
5.00pm – 4.57pm – 4.57pm – 5.00pm
5.30pm – 5.27pm – 5.27pm – n/a
6.00pm – 6.00pm – 6.00pm – 6.01pm
6.30pm – 6.30pm – 6.30pm – 6.30pm
7.00pm – 7.05pm – 7.05pm – 7.03pm
7.30pm – 7.35pm – 7.35pm – 7.32pm
8.00pm – 8.05pm – 8.06pm – 8.02pm
8.30pm – 8.35pm – 8.37pm – 8.33pm
9.30pm – 9.35pm – 9.38pm – 9.32pm
10.30pm – 10.31pm – 10.33pm – 10.31pm
11.30pm – 11.25pm – 11.25pm – n/a
12.00am – 11.55pm – 11.57pm – 12.02am
12.30am – 12.25am – 12.25am – 12.30am
1.00am – 12.53am
1.30am – 1.17am
A bit of fine print:
These times are based on my own TV watching experience based mostly on Monday to Thursday nights, although I have noticed late schedules running on weekends as well, but not as bad as the weekdays. Times are a rough average, off the top of my head. I have not sat down and recorded all scheduled times for every instance. Obviously these times may vary from night to night, but for the uninitiated, can act as a simple guide. Examples considered here include: ch 9 Mondays with Underbelly and the show after it as much as 15 minutes late, The Mentalist on Wednesday nights usually 7 or 8 mins late, Ellen at 11.30pm and now 12am starting early, 11.30 news starting at 11.25, 30 Rock on 7 starting as early as 11.20pm, Deal on 7HD starting at 12.53am instead of 1am, Heroes from 10.30 – 11.25, always missing the start of Beauty and the Geek which was on 11.30 Thursdays, and seeing it finish around 12.20, missing the first stories on 11.30 news on 9, missing the start of Hot Seat on 1st night and subsequent nights, seeing Antiques and Mash start 4.57 after 4.30 news finishes, Life on Mars on 10 starting at 9.33 Thurs (now 10.30 Fri) on the dot according to the EPG, Masterchef starting exactly on time in accordnace to the EPG, same with Talkin’ Bout my Generation, Rove despite being after reality shows normally starting as per EPG at say 9.06pm (although printed as a 9pm start), not above here due to odd time, but Letterman on 10 at 11.15pm is always on time as well, as is the show following. Yet 7 and 9 are running early by 5 or more minutes. Obviously it has to do with the lower volume of ads after 10.30, but the networks would know that already and their guides should reflect it. Running late from 7 to 10.30pm though is a deliberate action as both A Current Affair and Today Tonight finish 5 minutes late. Additional lateness, especially by channel 9, can be attributed to extra self promotion ads thoughout the night, especially when they through in sneak peaks like they currently are for HomeMade.
Note that in the case of ch 10, their EPG times actually reflect the times above whereas ch 7 and ch9′s do not and only show 8.30, 9.30, etc.
I have not included ABC, SBS or Foxtel here as they usually run on time with up to date EPGs and therefore saw no point to include them on the table.
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